


To Build A Home

by BlueAsylum



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Other, Will add tags as I go, ironfam, might be Peter/Harley
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:00:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24818002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueAsylum/pseuds/BlueAsylum
Summary: Harley Keener had rarely been dealt a good hand in his 13 years of life. He lived in the middle of nowhere with an always-working mother and an always-absent father. Who knew one incidental encounter with an old, broken-down mechanic would be the spark to change his life for good.Amidst the chaos of wars against aliens and super soldiers, a young Harley Keener in Tennessee faced his own war and lost. While the famous Tony Stark is busy, Colonel James Rhodes, along with help from some special friends of his, might just be able to help.TW: domestic violence
Relationships: Carol Danvers/James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Harley Keener & Carol Danvers, Harley Keener & James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Harley Keener & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 11
Kudos: 31





	1. Living in a Broken Home

**Author's Note:**

> Hey Guys! This is my first fanfic ever and I like didn't even know what to put in the tags but I am trying my best.
> 
> Anyways, hope you guys like it!
> 
> Also Disclaimer: The depictions of domestic violence in this writing are by no means going to be realistic. I can do my best, but I haven't personally experienced it and everything I know is from news, movies, and other media.

When Harley was a kid, he used to stay up late waiting by the door for his dad to come home. His mom would have to carry him to bed when he’d eventually fall asleep on the floor. Harley would sit out in front of the door waiting every night for six months, until one night his mother sat him down and explained to him harshly that his dad wasn’t coming back. That he was never coming back. That he’d left them. Harley asked a million questions through his sobs, and ran a million more through his brain. Why would he leave? Why won’t he come back? Why doesn’t he want us? Why doesn’t he love me? His mother, with hopelessness and defeat in her eyes, would answer each question the same: I don’t know. I don’t know. 

His sister was too young to remember, her being only two years old to his five. So Harley became the dad. He took care of his sister when his mom was gone working all day and night. And when Abbie fell asleep he’d go to the garage and build. Building helped Harley stay calm. Whenever he’d get mad at Abbie for trying to stay up and watch movies when she had school the next night, or when he’d get sad at the empty chairs at the kitchen table where his mom and dad should be, or when he’d get worried when his mom came home tired and barely able to stand, he’d build. He built small little robots to make Abbie smile, built himself a potato gun to protect him and Abbie after that one time mom’s boyfriend came home drunk and took a swing at him, fixed up the old beat-up truck his dad could never get to work. That’s another thing Harley loved about building. His dad was a terrible mechanic. His dad couldn't fix something to save his life. Harley could. And every time he fixed up a broken toaster or jammed school printer he reminded himself that he wasn’t his father. He was better.

When Tony Stark broke into his garage he was 11 years old, his mom had been single for almost a year, his sister was finally old enough for Harley to feel safe leaving her alone in the house, and Harley could aim his potato gun well enough to shoot a bird out of the sky. Every minute he spent with the man felt like an adventure. Harley felt like a superhero and for the first time since he was five years old, Harley felt like he had a dad. 

And then, the moment ended. The days passed by and the famous Tony Stark went on to continue the adventure alone. He went on to get back to the busy and adventurous life he lived, and Harley helped his mother find her bedroom after she drank a bottle of wine and could barely walk without stumbling and falling over. Tony Stark saved the world and life went on. Harley started to get mad at himself. Iron man said so himself: dad’s leave. No need to be a pussy about it, Harley reminded himself. And really, who was he kidding? What would the great Tony Stark want to do with some kid from a small ass town that only seemed to produce alcoholics and christians who took the bible way too literally. 

So, Harley kept building, until one day he walked into his garage after a particularly rough day at school (he never did get to use that overdone flashlight on those kids at school) and found a room filled with tech worth more than the entire town he lived in. Suddenly, Harley’s heart filled with a new hope. Tony Stark may be busy saving the world, but he was still here for Harley too. He came back, and that’s more than his real father ever did.

Harley began to build with a new vigor. He built bigger robots that could clean the house and he built a music player with a bunch of illegally downloaded songs inside for Abbie to love. And then his mom found him in the newly renovated garage while drunk and cursed him out for all the money he’d kept hidden. The car went first, which lasted his mom a week. Then the mini fridge. Then everything Harley had built. For years Harley had wished his mom could quit her job so she could be happy and take care of Abbie and him. Instead, his mom started to drink more wine and bring more boyfriends home. The boyfriends only got worse and worse somehow. Harley started to hide as many electronics he could at the abandoned warehouse down the street. The computer didn’t make it, but he managed to slip out a small tablet that he would sneak into the house on occasion to charge. Tony called him sometimes. At first it was every couple of days. Then once a week.Then something called the accords came into the news and their conversations got put on hold. Two years after the incident Harley was left with an empty garage, an alcoholic mother and her ass of a boyfriend, and an empty hole that used to fill with excitement and hope every time the mechanic called.

Harley understood, he did. He was the famous Tony Stark, Iron Man, savior of the world. He was busy. He didn’t know that Harley spent most of his time at the library or warehouse with Abbie after school, scrounging for food in dumpsters and sneaking Abbie into her bedroom before facing his drunk mom and her boyfriend. It wasn’t always bad. Sometimes the adults would laugh, or they’d be too wasted to bother him at all, or it would be just his mom. Sometimes his mom would talk to him and Harley would forget all about the garage she tore apart for money and the years of her life she’d spent working or drunk instead of caring for her kids. 

“You were always such a smart little boy,” she would say. “You were so good with Abbie, better than I could ever be. Remember when she took her first steps?”

“I do,” Harley would say, and you don’t, because you weren’t there, he would think.

“Such a beautiful little girl,” she would say, her eyes glazed over. Those days Harley almost felt like he had a mom. He would smile and share stories and him and his mom would laugh, and he’d hold his smile the best he could when his mom would comment, “you two were so expensive to take care of. All your clothes and food.” “Two was too many. One was probably too many too.”

Then there were the bad nights, where Harley wished desperately that Iron Man would come flying through the door to save him. He would take hit after hit. He would feel the heat of a cigarette on his arm, only 13 and already covered in burns and scars, and he would cry and wish he could just leave and take Abbie with him and move to New York and live happily ever after with Tony and Pepper. He’d met Pepper quite a few times on phone calls. She was always the sweetest person to Harley, and she would always chastise Tony for missing a “very important meeting” or “a press conference that was absolutely necessary- Tony you can’t just expect people to let you do whatever you want- yes you have to be there”. Harley thought she was funny. Sometimes Rhodey would be on the phone. Rhodey would ask questions that Tony never thought to ask, that Harley couldn’t always answer. “How’s school?”, “how’s your mom?”, “Is Iron Idiot here bothering you?-” “Uh, he means Iron man-” “No, Iron man goes to press conferences and council meetings when he’s told to, Iron Idiot leaves his friend to explain to everyone why he couldn’t come”. Harley liked Rhodey. Sometimes when Tony had to leave Rhodey would stay and say goodbye. Sometimes Rhodey would call him and show him around the air base he was at, or would ask how he was doing. One time he called Harley and introduced him to Captain Marvel herself. The Captain Marvel. Harley was so excited he almost broke his tablet after his hand slipped while jumping in excitement. 

Sometimes on bad days it wasn’t Iron Man that saved the day. Sometimes it was Rhodey. He would burst in all sunglasses and badges and take Harley and Abbie to an air base. They would fly planes with Captain Marvel and eat dinner at the table with no empty seats. Rhodey would ask about his day and Harley wouldn’t lie because he didn’t have to. Because there was nothing bad to lie about. Sometimes Harley would cry himself to sleep because his ribs wouldn’t stop hurting and no one came. No one ever came. 

And then one day Harley fell asleep. He waited for his mom to come home with her boyfriend- Eli was the name of this one, if Harley remembered correctly. Eli was a big man who looked like he could’ve been a professional wrestler if he wasn’t born in fuckville, nowhere. He had tattoos of dragons and skulls, because if you were a big and scary person you had tattoos of big and scary things. His laugh was low and loud, like Santa Claus if he’d drank three bottles of alcohol and decided that elves were better as punching bags than present makers. He hated being a nobody in a small town so he drank and beat up any man that so much as looked at him without fear in their eyes. He hated immigrants because he thought without them he would be somebody, that without them he would have been able to be more than an angry man in a small, beat-up town with no more than a bar for comfort. He loved baseball, hated bugs, loved hair gel, and hated kids. He hated kids so he hated Harley and Abbie so every night when he came home drunk Harley made sure he only remembered that Harley lived in this house and only threw punches at him. He was thirteen, would be fourteen in three months, he could handle it.

Except one day Harley fell asleep on the table waiting for them to come home and his dad couldn’t find him so he went to Abbie’s room. Harley slept on the table, exhausted from the sleepless nights and injuries piling up, and Eli shook Harley’s sister to wake her up. He shook her and shook her and when her head hit the wall over and over again and she didn’t wake up, Eli beat her. And when she still wouldn’t wake up he threw her across the room. And when she still wouldn’t wake up he put his hands around her throat. And when she still wouldn’t wake up and her face grew pale and Eli realized what he did he ran out of the house. And when she still wouldn’t wake up Harley’s mom called the cops. And on April 4th, 2016, Abigail Keener went to bed and never woke up. On April 4th, 2016, Harley Keener slept while his sister was murdered. On April 5th, 2016, Harley woke up to a dead sister and an arrested mom. 

On April 6th, 2016 Harley met a woman named Renee Diaz, a social worker. 

On April 7th, 2016, Harley signed a release form at the coroner’s office saying he couldn’t afford to pay for burial costs. Abigail Keener wouldn’t get a fancy gravestone, or a big funeral full of speeches and mourning. No one would remember who she was except for a thirteen year old kid in the middle of nowhere and two drunks in prison.


	2. Enter. Remember.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter: Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry it took so long to update, but I finally got another chapter up! Thank you guys so much for your comments (I know, it is very sad. Promise it gets better!)! Anyways, hope you guys enjoy this next chapter :)

To say that the last few months of James Rhodes’ life had been a disaster would be an understatement. 138 combat missions. James Rhodes had completed 138 combat missions, not to mention helping save the world on more than one occasion. You really never know when a fight is gonna be your last. 

He hated feeling weak and helpless. He couldn’t even stand on his own two damn feet by himself, needing someone to hold and support him. At least, Rhodey thought to himself, I have the chance to learn how to stand on my own two feet again. Tony Stark never disappointed the world with his genius. The leg braces he made were incredible, and Rhodes knew they would revolutionize the medical field. Stark Industries was already developing an entire wing dedicated to assisting the disabled. From affordable hearing aids to prosthetic eyeballs, every possible project related to the disabled community was now a new project currently being worked upon in Stark Industries. Tony himself was heading up numerous projects, his main focus being on braces and prosthetics for injured veterans of war. Looking at all the people Tony was helping, Rhodey almost felt proud. He almost felt proud of the braces on his legs, of all the pain he went through not being able to walk. Unfortunately, no matter how much he felt his own incident helped others, it could never take away the sadness he felt every time he woke up in the morning and struggled to get up. It could never take away all the pain he still felt in his spine and his legs. Turns out, it’s not just other people you can grieve for. You can grieve for yourself, too. Rhodey grieved for the loss of something he took so easily for granted in his life. You don’t imagine often that one day you’ll wake up unable to get out of bed in the morning.

Nevertheless, this was far from the last act of the great Colonel James Rhodes. A certain blonde, super-powered friend of his made sure to remind him of that upon her return. Carol Danvers took one look at Rhodey and his sorry ass and dragged him all the way from his bed to the Edwards Air Force Base. Safe to say, landing (quite ungracefully) in pajamas in the middle of a base full of air force pilots and trainees was less than dignifying. Within a few hours though, James felt more like himself than he had in months. Carol always did have that sort of effect on him. Tony was great, but he blamed himself too much for Rhodey’s incident, and couldn’t bring himself to force Rhodey to do anything he didn’t want to do. Had Carol been there through the first month of recovery for Rhodey, she would’ve turned into a damn drill sergeant getting him out of bed in the morning. It was nice, Rhodey missed having her around. 

“And over here, you’ve got a couple F-15Cs, but the one you want to pay the most attention to is the one right over there,” Rhodes gestured towards the fighter aircraft to his right, with the words “The Avenger” painted in bright red. Leading a tour of the air force was fun, even if he was a little rusty. Carol made sure to correct him each and every time, with a growing smirk at each laugh she received from the cadets they was touring. 

“Woah,” one of the cadets commented, “was it named after the Avengers?”

Rhodey laughed, “more like the Avengers were named after it, or more specifically, named after its pilot.” Carol smiled under the praise, even though the cadets didn’t have any clue that she was the pilot he was referring to, and probably couldn’t know given the circumstances of how that title got passed on. “And if you look real closely, you can see a small dent in the wing where the pilot got a little too cocky on the landing.” Carol glared as Rhodey smiled even brighter. Oh yeah, this was definitely cheering him up.

“Yeah, well that pilot wouldn’t be the only one to damage an aircraft from getting too cocky.”

“I got no idea what you’re talking about. I got a clean record, Danvers. As polished and shiny as Ross’s shrine to America’s ass.”

“Really? Cause I can think of a few very public incidents with a certain suit of armor-”

“And if you all continue to follow me you can see the fighter jet that carried the bomb that almost blew up New York City in the famous battle against the Chitauri.”

To say that Rhodey was happy by the end of the day was an understatement. Once the air base started to clear out for the evening, Rhodey and Carol flew over (on a jet this time) to Maria Rambeau’s place for dinner. Fury was planning to visit within the next couple of days. He was tied up presently with the whole aftermath of the Sokovia Accords. Sure, monitoring the Avenger’s and holding them accountable for their actions was one thing, but with the rise of inhumans, the world was about to gain a whole new form of violence they’re not equipped to handle. 

Nevertheless, the dining table was full. Talos and his family had decided to make the trip to Earth with Carol for this visit. Monica Rambeau had returned as well. After her air force training (taking after her mother), Monica fought to join Carol and Talos in helping relocate the Skrulls and fight against the Kree. Carol was less than pleased about the fighting aspects of her ambition, but after years of training and flying lessons (human air force training can only take you so far in learning how to fly a spacecraft), Carol finally let her start going on missions with her. The two were a crime-fighting pair. Monica was 32 years old now. It was still hard for him, Carol, Maria, and pretty much everyone to forget that she was no longer the kid she used to be. She was 32 now. 32 and married at that, to Talos’s daughter. That part Rhodey still had troubles comprehending, but like hell was he gonna be the one to ask questions. 

“It’s sure been a while since we’ve seen you here, James. You’re looking good with those braces,” Maria commented over the table.

“Yeah, well, I was planning on staying in my pity party of not walking for a little while longer, but Ms. Zero-Respect-For-The-Disabled over here decided to fly my ass out of bed and now here we are.” Rhodey teased, pulling an amused smile from Carol.

“What does ass mean?” a small voice piped up. Rhodey turned to see Monica’s three year old daughter Teva peering over at him curiously. 

“A word you don’t ever need to know or say,” Rhodey responded quickly.

“Now, I wouldn’t go that far,” Carol commented.

“How about we just it’s a bad word,” Maria said, turning to Teva, “it’s a bad word and you should never use it.”

“But Uncle Rhodey got to use it!” Teva protested.

“And Uncle Rhodey shouldn’t have used it,” Maria said, with a pointed glare at him, “right?”

“Yeah, right. My bad. Don’t use that word, kid.” Teva pouted at Rhodey’s response. If there was one thing Rhodey knew, though, it was that you should never under any circumstances get on Maria’s bad side (or Carol’s for that matter. Both were frightening forces to be reckoned with.)/

Rhodey remembers when Monica first gave them the news of Teva being born. He’s still too afraid to ask if the kid’s adopted or not, because if she’s not he does not want to have the conversation that would follow.

Seeing Teva again (she was 2 the last time he saw her) got him to thinking about another kid he hadn’t seen in a while.

“You know, this reminds me, it’s been a while since I called Harley. I should check in on the kid, see how he’s doing with this whole mess of things on the news.” Rhodey voiced his thoughts.

“Yeah, you should see if you can get a hold of him now, I miss talking to that little smart mouth.” Carol grinned as Rhodey pulled out his phone.

“Does he know about us?” Talos asked, caution in his tone.

“Maybe.” To be honest, Rhodey wouldn’t be surprised if the kid hacked into Fury’s personal SHIELD files and knew every secret the man had. He recognized Captain Marvel over facetime and Rhodey still hasn’t figured out how he knew (Tony, probably). “Either way, the kid knows how to keep a secret. And aliens aren’t exactly a new phenomenon any more.” Rhodey pressed the call button on his phone and let it ring on speaker.

“I still don’t like this,” Talos muttered. A long silence went by as the phone rang and ended with the phone going to voicemail.

“Huh, must be busy,” Rhodey said, sliding the phone back into his pocket.

“Must be the poor kid’s bedtime,” Carol teased.

“Speaking of bedtimes,” Monica said, “I think it’s time I put Teva to bed.” With that, Monica and her wife got up to carry a whining Teva to their guest room.

“You can try him tomorrow,” Maria suggested.

“Better make sure I’m there when you do. Don’t think you’ll get away with talking to the kid without me.” Carol said with an amused grin.

“Why, so you two can make fun of me together? I swear, if I have to hear another War Machine/Iron Patriot joke-”

“Oh come on, you know Harley and I have so much more material than that.”

“Oh I’m aware, and that’s exactly why I don’t like talking with you two-”

“I’m sorry, who introduced us two?”

“Yeah, I introduced you two. Show some respect-”

The night went on like that, and the topic of Harley was eventually dropped as the five remaining members of the table continued on casual conversation, before calling it a night. Everything was content. Until Harley didn’t pick up the next day. Or the day after that. After calling Harley four times in the span of six hours, Rhodey started to feel a pit of worry grow in his stomach. He started to assume the worst. Frantically, Rhodey typed in Harley’s name into google, hoping nothing would pop up. Ten seconds later, Rhodey started reading an article that got more and more horrifying as it went on. Emotions flew around in Rhodey’s head as he read, that pit of worry amplifying as it was joined by horror, grief, anger, and a slew of other emotions that bubbled in Rhodey’s chest and threatened to burst. Rhodey sat there for a minute after reading, trying to process and contemplate the heap of information he’d just gained. Then, he spurred into action. Within minutes he had a flight booked to Tennessee, and minutes after that he had a super-powered Captain ready to meet him there.

One week. Harley Keener had been dealing with the murder of his sister and the jailing of his mother for one week. Which meant Harley had no family to stay with. Which meant Harley was in foster care. James Rhodes knew the system all too well, what it did to kids like Harley with nowhere else to go. Like hell was he going to sit by and let Harley go through all this without James by his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand that's it for now! I got a busy life, but I'll try to update soon! 
> 
> Also, I lowkey have this other ongoing Harley Keener fanfic I've been thinking of posting and idk whether to post it yet or not.

**Author's Note:**

> And so, it begins. Kind of. It's about to begin.


End file.
